The Meadows School of the Arts, formally established in 1969 at SMU in Dallas, has achieved prominence as one of the foremost arts education institutions in the United States. Learn more about SMU Meadows

Meadows serves the public as a significant cultural center by presenting more than 400 events annually for the Dallas community and surrounding region. Read more about upcoming events and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, "This Week at Meadows".

The Meadows School of the Arts, formally established in 1969 at SMU in Dallas, has achieved prominence as one of the foremost arts education institutions in the United States. Learn more about SMU Meadows

Meadows serves the public as a significant cultural center by presenting more than 400 events annually for the Dallas community and surrounding region. Read more about upcoming events and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, "This Week at Meadows".

Areas of Study

Dallas Resources

Museums, Private Collections and Architecture

SMU students have exceptional access to world-class collections in Dallas-Fort Worth. Thanks to support from a vibrant community of artists, collectors, enthusiasts and philanthropists, the arts in Dallas are thriving.

The SMU campus is located only five miles from downtown Dallas, home of the largest urban arts district in the nation (larger than Lincoln Center in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.). Students not wishing to drive downtown can take the light rail trains; a DART station is located only a couple of blocks from campus. Students can also take the Trinity Railway Express between Dallas and Fort Worth.

Dallas Museums

The Dallas Museum of Art has an encyclopedic collection of over 22,000 objects with strengths in the areas of American silver, furniture, painting and sculpture; contemporary European and American art, Indonesian textiles, Etruscan jewelry, and African, Pre-Columbian and south Asian art.

SMU’s own Meadows Museum is home to one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Spanish art outside of Spain, and is open to SMU students free of charge, year round.

The Nasher Sculpture Center, designed by Renzo Piano, contains a stellar collection of modern sculpture that includes works by Picasso, Matisse, Giacometti, David Smith, Henry Moore, Richard Serra and Alexander Calder.

Fort Worth Museums

The Amon Carter Museum, housed in a recently expanded building by Philip Johnson, has one of the world’s best collections of American photography and a very strong collection of American paintings and sculpture.

The Kimbell Art Museum is one of the world’s premiere art museums. Housed in Louis Kahn’s seminal building, the small collection of 300 works offers a wide-ranging survey of European, Asian, Latin American, African, Ancient, Pre-Columbian and Oceanic art of the highest quality.

The Fort Worth Modern Museum, chartered in 1892, is housed in a striking building by Tadeo Ando and is touted by Travel + Leisure magazine as one of the world’s most beautiful art museums. Its collection includes post-1945 paintings, sculpture, photographs and video by such artists as Francis Bacon, Donald Judd, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol.

Collections in Dallas

Dallas also is home to several first-rate private collections of contemporary art, some available for viewing by appointment. The Marguerite and Robert Hoffman Collection includes significant work by Joseph Beuys, Joseph Cornell, Marcel Duchamp, Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Gerhard Richter, Mark Rothko, Sol Lewitt, Cy Twombly and Louise Bourgeois; the Deedie and Rusty Rose Collection emphasizes sculpture, modern furniture and handmade objects and includes work by Ana Mendieta, Bruce Nauman, Sigmar Polke, Robert Ryman, Richard Tuttle and Franz West; and the Cindy and Howard Rachofsky Collection and House, distinguished by its concentrations in Arte Povera and Minimalism. Moreover, the Rachofsky House was designed by Richard Meier to showcase and rotate this extensive art collection.